The Physics of Science Fiction UPGRADED AND REMASTERED: Phasers and Disintregration

[Ryagful]

if things happen how you say, wouldn't that like...fill the freaking room with a cloud of PLASMA and also kill everyone in it? just saying.

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@Ryagful Since plasma has a temp of thousands of degrees, yes. Put a cloud of it in a room and they ARE going to be all dead.

[Ryagful]

thought so. i think i'll stick to bullets...

[Idazmi7]

@Ryagful Until someone invents this thing, that is.

[SailorBarsoom]

That's very cool. Now how does stun work? ;-)

One cool thing about "phasers" and "blasters" and other such don't-call-it-a-laser weapons is that you can skip real-world laser realities like being seen from the side, stunning, and the way beams in TV and movies seem to move at the speed of an arrow.

"Hey, it ain't a laser. It ain't a ray of light, you know."

[shanedk]

What I never understood is, how do phasers know when to stop? Why do they vaporize the person but not vaporize a hole in the floor beneath them? And what about when you miss? Doesn't that instantly put a hole in your ship? Not a good thing...

[SpreadingtheMuse]

@shanedk

Phasers have to input energy into the mass they hit to vaporize it. So the more energy they input, trade off, the more they lose, and as soon as they transfer all of it, the phaser "stops." A phaser manufacturer would certainly adjust the pre-adjusted settings for average humanoid mass and say "To vaporize a humanoid of average mass and nothing else, use setting 12," or similar.

[shanedk]

@SpreadingtheMuse But very few people are of average mass; so for smaller people you have a hole in the floor and larger people you leave their feet behind.

Me being pedantic, I know.

[Ryagful]

ok, but if it hits the wall, won't it do the same? just shed some light on it please.

[RepublibotThreePoint]

Snazzy! I love your stuff, I tell my homeschooling parent friends to show 'em to their kids. Would you be interested in being interviewed by my website? We've spent a good deal of time and energy trying to convince my fellow conservatives that science is swell, and not something to be afraid of. We interviewed Winchell Chung from Atomic Rockets. I think we'd like to talk to you too, if you're up for it.

[PETE4REALITY]

nice one 

[treejc211]

i love your work thank you for keeping up on it.

i only wish you had more views.

In these last few weeks i have been revisiting star trek the next generation.

i have been looking at how the Enterprise is shaped and what draw backs and pluses it would have for space travel.

[starknight97]

excellent love it. 

[Bluedrake42]

sweeeeet